Damien Mulley

Yes, Auds got me into appreciating this pornography. Now that I’m using the video iPod I got for Christmas (I opened the box 3 days ago) I put a lot of the latest/newest/coolest stuff on it. Many of these I got after looking at Aud’s website and seeing what she likes. Who’d have thought a gay man and a Pope loving conservative lass would have the same tastes. Sinéad’s site also helped me out.

So the great new music that I’m liking:

The New Pornographers
Josh Ritter
Tom Vek
Brendan Benson
The Go! Team
Band of Horses
Mew
Guillemots

Listening to the new Flaming Lips’ album and I’m not gone on it. It sounds like remixes of covers of other songs. Too many riffs and baselines from other songs or that’s how it seems to me.

Can anyone out there turn this Garda Road Death stats page into a feed and possibly one we can also put on our blogs? Perhaps if not too morbid a simple bit of javascript that displays a bit of text in a blog sidebar stating “23 road deaths since January 1st 2006” which then links to the Garda website. Can any of the tech gurus out there do this?

15 year old killed in Offaly bus crash. I’m sure Gay Byrne will swoop in and make it all better. For fuck’s sake. How many more kids will have to die before the Government does something besides commissioning reports? Let’s have a pool to see how many hours it will be before the Government mentions how much cash they’ve spent on school buses. That’s the default defense these days.

John Timmons points out the URL RTE used: http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0404/rta1.html

Obviously RTE are now used to multiple stories on Road Traffic Accidents.

Hey snooty bloggers, stop being snooty, get over yourselves, cool it, stop being busy-bodies and stop telling other bloggers how to behave.

Perhaps one deemed appropriate by the “blogging community�? This to me is indicative of a snooty, “Irish Blog Establishment� attitude. Only a few weeks after the first ever Blog Awards and we already have elder statesmen turning up their noses at provincial oiks.

Delicious!

But seriously, he’s Ferghal’s right. If we go on an El Paso witchhunt for their personal attacks on people, we won’t stop there and might move on to someone else.

Neil Gaiman is a fantastic person and a fantastic creator of new things. I’d say in that order too. Yes, I’m a fan. Anyways, he was asked a series of questions by the Guardian and he’d posted all of them on his blog. For some reason this link to it doesn’t work. His blog has little (friendly) demons than tinker with it from time to time in order for fans to alert Neil. That’s my guess. Yes yes, I’m getting to the point. So Neil answered one of the questions asked “What is the most important lesson life has taught you?” and he answered:

That the whole “following your dreams” thing may be a cliche but it’s also an excellent way to live a life.

So how many people who read this here blog are following their dreams? Even in a small way? Man, some of you must have some fucked up dreams.

MJ picks this up and adds on to it:

What are the three most important things in your life?
Are you doing something for them right now?
If not, why not?

RTE news report on the guy that got away with a speeding ticket because the authorities could not deal with the ticket as Gaeilge. This additional bit is kind of shocking:

His solicitor also sought a translation of the road traffic acts and the District Court rules in Irish and discovered these were unavailable.

Christ lads! Cop on.

On April 1st, 2006 at 1400 in Room Q119 in the Helix on the DCU campus in Glasnevin, Tom Duke of Technofutures told wide-eyed Labour groupies about how the Internet is going to be BIG for campaigning. This was no joke, this wasn’t a prank. This was the Internet. Serious business.

According to the Indo Tom told the crowd about the benefits of the world wide net:

The number of voters with internet access and changing population and housing patterns makes the internet a crucial campaign tool, he believes.

“As you’re getting closer to the election, the number of hits on the websites does increase as people go looking for the specific information they are seeking,” he said.

Fantastic. Did anyone else notice this phenomenon where, if something is in the news, people will look it up (also known as Googling to the technonerdwebheads) more than they normally do?

Tom Duke who hasn’t a blog or a findable one at least, said webdiaryNetblogging is also going to be BIG:

“We’re not at the same stage as the US just yet. The whole blog [internet diaries] thing is a big social phenomenon. The US does show what it will be like and blogs will become more important here,” he said.

Of course I’m being facetious because I’ve been working on a top secret Internet plan for the upcoming Irish Election myself. (Hi Cian!) All I need is a blog, motivation and a copy of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised and I too can create an Internet plan. Er no, not quite. In reality I have been monitoring the way the various parties work online and work with their koolaid drinkers online. It’s dire to say the least. Labour doesn’t have anything close to a good, workable website though Fine Gael in fairness beats them to having one that’s a total piece of shit. Most parties don’t get the net at all and it is reflected in their policies on communications and technology. I have yet to see any party with a policy on blogging and interacting online. How many TDs post to discussion forums? Liz McManus has a blog and fair play to her but why is she the blogging maverick of Labour? Shouldn’t it be the norm by now?

Some tips for Labour and the other parties:
RSS. Where are the feeds on ALL your websites?
Make sure all the websites are accessible. This means the W3 test and the Bobby test.
Where are the leaders blogs?
Where are the aggregators for all the Labour TDs?
Discussion forums?

There’s 5 free tips that will improve your rankings and transparency online. For tips on how to win new supporters and get more votes you can pay me to tell you.

Upcoming exams. Hurtling towards me. Time to study Constitutional law, Contract law and introduction to the legal system. No, I won’t stop blogging but I will remove myself from the computer and from my batcave in the evenings to sit and sneer at arts students in the library.

Whether an April fool or not, the El Paso incident has provoked some healthy discussion. Adam Maguire stated:

In the first negative development for blogging in Ireland, news is coming out that the El Paso Times is facing legal action for unsavory comments

I’d be of the complete opposite view. I think what happened (if it did happen) is a very good thing for Irish blogging. It isn’t negative at all just like Elton John being libeled was not a negative thing for tabloids. It might be a negative thing for bullies but not for bloggers and not for blogging.

To push for more freedoms and abilities online we need to know what our boundaries are. The (hypothetical) El Paso incident shows some of the boundaries and I think many could agree with Suzy that if you act like a dickhead then be prepared to be tackled about it. Bernard unfortunately discovered how restrictive the boundaries are even when he and many others felt he was in the right. We can work on pushing these boundaries so non-dickheads like Bernard can be afforded greater protection if groups with more money than morals want to prevent transparency.

I think it is good that bloggers can be taken to task for what they say on their blog and I also think that if we want more people to give official recognition to blogging (Christ I sound like a SFer) then like the Digital Rights Ireland libel document created for bloggers and web publishers, then perhaps us bloggers should also have a document created for those that have been hurt and damaged by comments on blogs. A guide on how to have defaming remarks removed from blogs and websites. Why should we hide this information from the general population?

I’m happy to be answerable. I think we’re not quite there yet for a blogging version of a press council or even some voluntary code or a union but I do feel that with bloggers able to take criticism and take complaints then something like this should be made available. We blog about transparency every day, we should help those that feel wronged. Or am I gone all Stockholm syndrome.

Meanwhile… That El Paso reply today reminds me of a joke about comedic timing which I can’t remember now but it goes something like:

A”Knock knock”
B”Who’s there?”
A”The most important thing about telling a joke”
B”The most important thing ab…”
A “Timing.”
B “..out telling a joke who?”